Loren King

Ten years ago, I set off on my first marathon swim: the traditional Marilyn Bell route across Lake Ontario, from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Toronto. The core lesson of that first swim is the same lesson of every swim I've done since: these crossings never happen without an extraordinary team. 🙏🤙

A reminder, because it is almost that time of year: More children are killed by cars on Halloween than any other day of the year, by far. www.vox.com/future-perfe... If you're a parent, I hope you'll do what you can to keep kids safe. If you're driving on Saturday, PLEASE exercise extra caution.

$813 million federal research investment arrives amidst threats to funding in other countries

i don't think anyone should run explicitly on banning online gambling but i do think that a democratic-led government should just quietly take steps to undermine the industry and create an inhospitable regulatory environment

A fairly common analogy for AI is "it's a tool, like a calculator". But calculators can add up two three digit numbers pretty reliably, and apparently AI, presumably vetted by humans at Deloitte, can't. So, not a good analogy!

Never forget that when Seoul, Korea removed the Cheonggyecheon expressway in 2003 and replaced it with a restored stream, 1000 acre park and improved public transit, not only did it TRANSFORM the city’s public life and economic success, but the car traffic got better. The car traffic got BETTER.

Every morning I cross a road where drivers run the red. So I wait until I’m sure cars are stopped before I cross. The pause prompts drivers - waiting to turn right - to honk at me. There’s no way for pedestrians to behave that will make car-brained Ottawa drivers happy. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

The soaring costs of public universities is a political decision. When these schools predominantly served white students, they tended to be free (UC, CCNY, etc.) But as the number of students of color has increased, funding for the public universities has decreased. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/b...

I don’t believe the anger correlates with an indifference to AI’s achievements. On the contrary, a perception that, in a different world, the tech could be used for ends that were genuinely useful only fuels the outrage about what’s being done with it now. ..."

This is a great pushback on that viral Jasmine Sun essay everyone seemed to love theconversation.com/friday-essay...

Thinking about starting a little organization that brings together people who want to read and discuss some old and new books and articles once a week to learn something about the human condition, how to navigate the world, and maybe pick up a few critical skills and relationships along the way.

Incredible gender difference in voting intention in Brazil.

Tonight David Eby is going to resign, and then hand the province over to a group dedicated to screwing over First Nations. So seriously, f*ck him, his ego and greed for doing this, and wasting all our time for the next 4 years, fighting them.

Yep 😖

It sounds like hyperbole to suggest the current administration WANTS measles to become common again but I can’t think of much they’d be doing differently if they didn’t want that. (I think some of them really are eugenicists who legit prefer disease spread to prevention; others just don’t care)

i am so fucking mad that yglesias beat me to this one

"Treating everyone as justificatory equals turns out to be a surprisingly apt rule for Anthropocene human beings. ... In 2026, we are making decisions that affect every being on the spherical surface of the planet, now and in the future." - Lisa Ellis, Otago blog.apaonline.org/2026/07/14/k...

An attempt to document important facts concerning AI Safety, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Rationalism and San Francisco Effective Altruism tldr definitely a millenarian death cult www.verysane.ai/p/ai-safety-...

Well, *now* JD Vance will take it seriously. He's OK with raping children but everyone knows how he feels about killing family pets. [taps earpiece] I'm being informed that Amy Acton's biological mother is white, so in fact JD Vance does not care that she killed family pets.

Many called Jared Kushner corrupt Many noted he took bribes from Middle Eastern autocrats, especially Saudi Arabia, skewing US foreign policy And they were right But as this reveals, he's even more corrupt and took even more money from Middle Eastern autocrats that many, even strong critics, knew

No no! We can trust industry to regulate themselves, and the private sector is ALWAYS more efficient and innovative than public regulation and oversight. It's nothing but high roads and a bright future ... right? Right???

How about "none of the above" Jon Wells of The Spec? There's a serious progressive candidate for mayor in Hamilton, who has strong union and community endorsements, says thoughtful things on the issues, but the cowardly #HamOnt #YHM establishment can't bear to utter her name. SCARLETT GILLESPIE!!

ok but this is actually an appropriate way to honor Bacchus and i think the ancients would have agreed

In the coming century, there will be very few people who have seen a coral reef or a glacier.

Enormous news. A melanoma vaccine, one of the most deadly cancers out there. Science is good and helpful and there should be more of it. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...

I really don't think most people appreciate how much damage air pollution does to our bodies & brains. Even in the last 10 years the science has progressed a ton & everything it has discovered is *grim*.

Seems like a good day for a nationwide ad that ties Trump’s support for raping children to the Epstein files and urges voters to contact their local Republican House/ Senate candidate to ask them whether they agree with Trump.

There goes 6250 tonnes of CO₂ removal every year…

This video camera study showed that less than 5% of people on bikes broke traffic laws while riding bikes, yet 66% of people did so while driving. And perhaps even more importantly, if you REALLY want even MORE bike-riders to obey laws, build more protected bike infrastructure. Via @carltonreid.com

Ottawa streets are effectively lawless and neither city nor provincial leadership is taking steps to change it. Wonderful people are dying and it’s infuriating. www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...

The US* is pontificating about meddling in another country's politics/leadership? It's insulting enough just off historical examples (Chile, Iran, Indonesia, The Dismissal), but it's particularly insane this year given Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Ukraine, Alberta ...

😖

Today is the official release date for my new book, First Among Equals: Visions of Equality before Egalitarianism. It explores how and why “equality” became, rather suddenly, a basis on which ordinary men and women could make political demands in early modern England. Please, check it out!

The Trump regime’s funding cuts and politicization of science are causing many US researchers to leave the country and many more to leave science. This will have long-term consequences for science and humanity.

NEW: A high-ranking Republican tried to curb the unchecked growth of West Virginia’s school voucher program. Then three PACs — bankrolled by pro-school choice billionaires like the Koch family and Jeffrey Yass — worked to take him down. with @mtnstspotlight.bsky.social

Someone compared building AGI based on LLMs to expectation that breeding ever faster horses will finally create a locomotive.

Just build them. Doug Ford isn’t aware that Ottawa is in Ontario. He won’t know. ottawacitizen.com/news/local-n...

Note: TikTok - 15% owned by Musk pal Larry Ellison - permanently banned our "Musk" the movie account on the platform. www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politic...

Now published: plato.stanford.edu/entries/acad...

SCOOP: 'Tommy' from the now-viral exchange with Abdul El-Sayed is Thomas Teepell, a former staffer for Republican Senator Josh Hawley with close ties to Christian Nationalist Sean Feucht. He's the son of a former Bobby Jindal staffer whose consultant work was instrumental in getting Hawley elected.

vance is incapable of giving a straight answer and taking seriously the fact that the question is coming from a place of faith. like, substance aside this is terrible political performance.